FAQ

Project Bifrost is a carbon capture project in the Danish North Sea’s Harald-fields. The project brings the leading competences in Denmark within CCS together: Denmark’s Technical University has joined forces with the industry – namely the DUC-partners TotalEnergies, Noreco, and the state-owned Nordsøfonden as well as the Danish company Ørsted – to make CCS work in practice.

Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) is a technology that is used to reduce carbon emissions by capturing and storing the CO₂ underground. In Project Bifrost, the CO₂ will be captured at the source – for example from heavy industry and the production of heat and electricity. The CO₂ is transported and injected into the underground – for example in depleted oil and gas fields – where it is stored safely and permanently.

When CO₂ is stored in the underground, the emissions from the sectors that are difficult to restructure to fossil-free production – for example, heavy industry and/or heat and electricity production – are reduced. This makes CCS an important transition technology while society is developing and extending the use of fossil-free technologies.

In 2005, the IPCC stated that the fight against climate change must be based on multiple technologies. CCS is one of the technologies that can make a change in combatting the climate crisis: To reach the Danish 70% reduction target for 2030 as well as the Paris Agreement, emissions must be reduced significantly – CCS is a technology that enables reducing the level of emissions fast.

The Danish 70% reduction target entails that Denmark must emit about 20 million tons less CO₂ in 2030. And the CCS technology can deliver a large part of that: The Ministry of Climate, Energy and Utilities estimates that CCS has the potential to reduce Denmark’s CO₂ emissions by between 4-9 million tons per year from 2030. That delivers up to 40% of the total reduction target.

CCS is already proven technology, as the industry has been using the underlying principles for decades to increase the extraction of oil and gas. With many years of extensive experience and in-dept knowledge on operating in the Danish North Sea, the CCS partners together have the know-how necessary to succeed in storing CO₂ in the Harald-fields. The strong safety culture of the North Sea partners is the foundation for ensuring a safe setup for CCS in Denmark.

The Danish underground is particularly suitable for CO₂ storage because of the Danish geology: The sandstone material of the reservoirs and the layer of sealing claystone together ensure a safe and permanent storage. Through its long history with oil and gas production in the North Sea, DUC already have the needed infrastructure around the depleted fields – both the platforms and the pipeline-structure leading to it – which can be reused in connection with the storage of CO₂.

The installations in the Harald-wells are in good condition. The depleted field is already designed to handle high pressure, which together with the geological characteristics makes it highly suitable for CO₂ storage. It is the ambition to store CO₂ in both sandstone and chalk.

Project Bifrost investigates two options for transporting carbon to the Harald field: On short term via specialized shipping. The long-term goal is to transport the CO₂ via the existing pipelines, which are currently used to send gas to shore in Nybro.

Project Bifrost is publicly funded through the Energy Technology Development and Demonstration programme (EUDP) – a strategic investment following the national CCS-agreement from 2021 to make the Danish North Sea a center for CO₂ storage.